As a cancer patient, how would you like to receive a special kind of health care that helps you — and your family — manage all the physical aspects of a cancer diagnosis, plus the psychological, social, spiritual and practical aspects? After all, cancer doesn’t just affect your body; it affects your entire life.

“Palliative care is specialized care that focuses on alleviating stress and symptoms of serious illness,” says Sarah D’Ambruoso, a nurse practitioner and palliative care professional at UCLA Medical Center.

You may hear palliative care called comfort care, supportive care or symptom management. Whatever you call it, it’s an important part of taking care of people who have cancer. In fact, the American Society of Clinical Oncology recommends cancer centers offer palliative care in conjunction with treatment for metastatic disease (cancer that has spread) and for those patients who have many or severe symptoms.

Palliative care does not treat or cure cancer; rather, it’s provided in addition to standard treatment (such as surgery or chemotherapy). According to ASCO, patients who receive palliative care at the same time as cancer treatment often have less severe symptoms and better quality of life and are more satisfied with treatment.

“Palliative care brings comfort to people with health problems,” says Brownyn Long, a palliative care nurse at National Jewish Health in Denver. “It can be long term or short term.”

[See: Creative Ways Hospitals Reach Diverse Populations.]

Long says palliative care begins with alleviating physical symptoms, such as managing pain, shortness of breath, constipation or eating problems. “If you don’t feel well physically, it’s hard to do other things,” she says. Palliative care also addresses the emotional experience of cancer. “It’s like peeling an onion. [Patients feel] anxious, worried, depressed, fearful, blue.” A multi-disciplinary palliative care team may include a social worker, therapist or spiritual counselor (or all three) who can help patients navigate these difficult emotional and social waters. Other palliative care team members can assist with the logistical challenges of cancer, such as insurance coverage or simply helping you understand your diagnosis and treatment options.

Palliative care providers identify where patients need support, Long says. “Some only need help in one area, but their needs can shift over time.” In some ways, she says, colon cancer patients have needs that other cancer patients don’t, as surgeries for colon cancer can modify the digestive tract and be disfiguring (some patients require an external pouch to collect waste). Palliative care can help them with these symptoms and treatment consequences.

Ideally, patients begin receiving palliative care at the time of diagnosis, but they can start at any point in their treatment. “Patients who receive palliative care may actually live longer,” D’Ambruoso says. She cites a study in which patients diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer (the most advanced type) received palliative care from the time of their diagnosis. The study found they lived 2.7 months longer.

You can receive palliative care in nearly any health care setting, including the hospital, nursing home, assisted living or outpatient facility — even at home. Some palliative care treatments and medicines may be covered by private insurance, Medicare or Medicaid. Check with your insurer.

[See: When Health Treatments Go From Hospital to DIY.]

What’s Important to You?

The goal of palliative care is to improve patients’ quality of life when they’re dealing with a serious illness. Every patient’s needs are different, however, and may change over the course of their disease. An important part of palliative care is understanding what quality of life means to a specific person, D’Ambruoso says. “It requires a tailored approach. It’s important that patients and families share with the oncology team and palliative care team what they are most concerned or worried about, so we can integrate it into the patient’s treatment goals.”

Palliative Care Is Not Hospice Care

Hospice care is a bundle of services for patients who have a life-limiting illness and have decided to forego curative treatment, D’Ambruoso says. Palliative care includes hospice care, but palliative care can be initiated regardless of whether a patient is continuing to pursue curative therapy or not. The goal is always to maintain the best quality of life, even if you’re near the end of your life.

Palliative care can help patients make the transition to hospice, when the patient ends all efforts at curative treatment and their doctor expects they have less than six months left. “Family members don’t want to take away [a loved one’s] hope, so they have a fear of talking about hospice,” Long says. “But, for people who don’t have a lot of time left, hospice care can keep them out of the emergency room and allow them to take trips or create new memories.”

“So many people think palliative care means giving up,” Long continues, but that’s not true. “You can get really aggressive with symptom management through palliative care.”

[See: 14 Things You Didn’t Know About Nurses.]

Ask your oncology team about palliative care services as part of your total colorectal cancer care. For more information about palliative care, check out ASCO’s Palliative Care booklet.

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Palliative Care for Colon Cancer originally appeared on usnews.com